Gaining weight when you are over forty and female has long since been a problem. This weight also seems particularly targeted at the thighs and hips and well as the tummy area and your behind. Not only does it seem impossibly easy to gain this extra body fat, it seems equally impossible to get rid of it, despite sticking to the same healthy diet and activity regime as before.
WHY?? Many women over forty ask.
The answer is that estrogen is to blame.
What is EstrogenDominance
When you hear professionals talking about estrogen dominance they are describing a deficiency in the estrogen levels a woman has. When estrogen levels go up and progesterone levels drop (the hormone that balances the estrogenand works to regulate ovulation and fertility) the result is often that your body is instructed to dump fat in those hard to lose places.
Basically hormones have a lot to answer for!
How Exactly Does Estrogen DominanceAffect the Body
When your body has a higher estrogen level the fat cells are basically ordered to go forth and multiply and then sit down and stay where you really don't want them to. Estrogen also affects the way your thyroid works, acting the opposite way to progesterone which kick-starts it. This traitorous hormone therefore slows your metabolism down while also working to increase your body fat. It's no wonder that estrogen is known as the curse of the over 40's!
Time to Give Up and Grow Old Gracefully? No!
True, when your estrogen levels start to elevate and the progesterone drops off women over forty may have something of an uphill battle on their hands, finding it harder to keep body fat increases at bay. This is not the time to throw in the towel however, far from it! This process could start as early as thirty as at this point the body's ovulation levels naturally start to slowly decrease. It is the ovulation cycle which produces progesterone surges and so as time goes on and these higher levels of progesterone start to droop estrogen dominance starts to build.
Instead of deciding once you hit thirty, thirty five or forty to ditch your healthy lifestyle this is the time to grab the bull by the horns and beat the estrogen dominance into submission.
Causes and Battle Tactics
There are two main reported causes for these estrogen levels rising:
1) Aging (nothing we can do about that as such, time marches on regardless)
2) Stress.
There are some reports out there that also suggest that chemicals found in our food and household products also contribute to estrogen dominance and research into this is ongoing.
You can't stop or turn back the clock however you can take definitive action by reducing your stress levels considerably, eating a clean diet and continuing to work at increasing your regular activity levels, mixing up the routine to maximise the results.
There are some fabulously talented female athletes over forty who put twenty year olds in the shade and so clearly estrogen dominance can be handle if you are proactive enough.